Chris Bennet writes:

Our son, Frayser Bennett, is 6 year old and is suffering from chronic uveitis. He was diagnosed in July, 2015. He is currently under the care of Dr Guly at the Bristol Eye Hospital.

Every visit we make to the hospital, my wife and I are amazed at the level of care and of understanding my son receives from the specialist nurses and Dr Guly.

At one of the most challenging appointments when the full extent of his diagnosis was made clear and at our lowest point, we were given the Olivia’s Vision leaflet. This leaflet, and primarily your excellent website provided great help, support and understanding of the journey we are now on with our son and we are forever grateful.

The Event

With the support of family and friends, my parent’s hosted a full day BBQ (inclusive of food and drinks all day) for an entry donation. We held a raffle and an auction to further contribute towards the charity. It was an amazing day and most people were unaware of uveitis and were interested in understanding what our son is going through.

Olivia’s Vision is immensely grateful to receive this sum from the Bennet family.

OV is immensely grateful to Kirstin Homewood, who completed the London Marathon raising a wonderful £1,634 for OV.

Kirstin says

I am so proud to have been given the opportunity to run the London Marathon and raise money for such a worthy charity which is so close to my heart as my son suffers from Uveitis. All the hours of training were definitely worth it. It was a life changing experience for me and I hope one day we will manage to change the lives for the better of uveitis sufferers.

Simon Wade, who completed the London Marathon in an amazing time of 2 hours and 56 minutes, raised £1,077.50 for Olivia’s Vision. He ended the run with a huge smile having beaten his previous personal best time.

We are immensely grateful to Simon and also to his mother, Tania, who has been helping OV for several years now. Thank you, Simon and Tania.

The Croft School in Stratford upon Avon have been fundraising for Olivia’s Vision and Stratford Cancer and Eye Hospital Appeal.

A fantastic £1,749.09 has been raised so far. Our thanks go to the school, the Parents’ Association, Jane Huntingdon, Tamsin Richards and Charlotte, and the children of the Croft School. Your newsletter made our Christmas!

Sam ran the Liverpool Rock and Roll full marathon on the 14th June and raised around £1000 for OV.

Sam not only helped us fund the training of our next OV Fellows and the appointment of specialist nurses, but raised awareness of uveitis before his event through sharing Olivia’s video about the disease amongst his community and on social networks.

For Sam, raising awareness about our disease is as important as raising funds. We agree! OV is immensely grateful to Sam. Thank you, Sam!